St. John's family shaken by weekend home invasion
A St. John's couple, and their four young children, got a terrible fright over the weekend when they woke up to find an intruder had broken into their home on Logy Bay Road.
Jeffrey LeDrew says he was awoken around 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning to the sound of creaking on the hardwood steps outside his bedroom.
"I yelled out, 'Hello, hello' a couple of times and I thought it may have been my son coming up from the basement," said LeDrew.
The couple's oldest child, 10-year-old Sam, had recently moved into a bedroom in the basement.
When LeDrew stuck his head out the door and saw a dark shadow standing on the third step, he immediately knew it wasn't his son.
"I woke to Jeff screaming, 'There's a person in our house,'" recalled wife Connie Parsons.
LeDrew said the man fled from the home, tripping the security system. The police arrived a short time later.
Police discovered that the man entered the home through the kitchen. It appears he cut a hole in a window screen and then used a crowbar to pry open the window.
A scary discovery
When the man fled from the home, LeDrew said he rushed to find and put on his pants — that's when he made a scary discovery.
"Lo and behold, he actually came into our room while we were sleeping, with the four kids all in their beds, to take her purse and my pants with my wallet in it," said LeDrew.
"We had thought I caught him on the way up [the stairs], but actually it was on the way down, exiting the home."
The man took Parsons' purse as well as LeDrew's pants, containing his wallet.
The couple estimates the man got away with a couple hundred dollars in cash and gift cards.
Kids are shaken
Parsons said two of her four children became physically ill that night due to the stress, and all have been too scared to sleep alone.
"That's the worst part," she said. "We don't care about the money, but the fact that somebody violated our home. There's four kids that were here."
"Our little girl wouldn't leave the house yesterday. She's locking the doors, won't open a window. She's four years old."
Sam LeDrew, 10, said he hopes to be sleeping in his own room again soon. "It's pretty worrying," he said.
Meanwhile, Sam's eight-year-old sister Mary Grace is relieved that nothing of hers was stolen in the burglary.
"I was really scared because that night I lost my tooth, and then the tooth fairy came and gave me money. I was afraid he was going to take my money."
Parsons said the family has significantly increased its security system since the incident, with more motion sensors and cameras.
"There's not going to be a safer house in St. John's after this, for the sake of the kids," Parsons said.
"I don't know when we're going to be brave enough to go back to what life is supposed to be, which is safe in your own home."
This isn't the first time the couple has been targeted.
10 years ago, someone tried to enter the home through a basement window but was scared off after the alarm was triggered. The couple also had a car stolen from their driveway.
But according to LeDrew, neither was as startling as being awoken from his sleep to find a stranger in his home.
"If you woke up and everything was missing, you'd still feel violated but you wouldn't have that fear factor, I don't think."
A worker at a nearby golf course recovered and returned the stolen purse, which also contained Parsons keys — something she said was a big relief.
Meanwhile, a neighbour has since found the couple's credit cards in the nearby Pleasantville area. All of which had already been cancelled by LeDrew and Parsons.
